Grilled Scallops with Watermelon Salsa

Perfect summer dinner:  Grilled scallops with watermelon salsa, sauteed kale, and caramelized tomato-onion quinoa (more on that in upcoming post)-- and of course when it comes to food and me, there's always a story.

My teen daughter,  Kelsey, a budding gourmet and food critic herself, takes a strong interest in menu planning when her dad travels for business.  And if you know anything about teen girls, you know that their desire to share time in a pleasant, bonhomous way with parents is minuscule.    If she wants to hang with me over Ossetra and truffles,  I'm likely to give it a shot.  She and I dine on the dishes she dreams up (yes, I do the procurement and execution) while her far less adventurous brother scarfs hamburgers.  Dad, poor chap, is stuck hearing about these feasts while he roughs it in airport hotels.

Last month, when Dad spent 3 days in Birmingham, AL taking depositions, we had filet with port wine reduction and buttermilk mashed potatoes one night;  the following saw Panko crusted Cajun crab cakes with cilantro slaw...Last night, poor Dad was stuck in transit between here and the west coast while we enjoyed the repast pictured above.  When he asked me about the evening after finally arriving in the wee hours of the morning due to 3 hours of flight delays, he chafed a bit:  "Why is it that I leave and you make these magazine spread dinners, and when I get home it's omelets all around?!".   Well, he has a point.  But in my defense, the omelets are really good.

Anyway, Kelsey planned the menu's side dishes around a Glamour mag article that suggested 5 Foods that everyone should start eating for optimal health, and she asked for grilled scallops with watermelon salsa to accompany the kale and quinoa.  Here's what I did:

Watermelon Salsa

1 1/2 cups cubed watermelon
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
2 scallions, sliced, green and white parts
1/2 tsp finely minced hot pepper (adjust for taste--peppers vary widely in 'heat')
1/2 tsp salt
juice of 1 lime

Mix all ingredients in glass bowl and let sit one hour to blend flavors.

Scallops

6 large dry scallops
juice of 1/2 lime
salt & pepper

Place scallops on plate, squeeze lime over and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Marinate for about 30 mins.  Oil grill, heat to high, and place scallops on grill.  Cover 1 minute.  Rotate the scallops 90 degrees on the grill (to get the cross-grill marks), cover and cook another minute.  Flip the scallops and repeat this rotation process on other side.  Total cooking time 4-6 minutes, do not overcook.  Remove from grill, plate, and serve with salsa.

Enjoy!

Guacamole & Salsas - Dress Your Grilled Meat for Dinner!

Tomatoes on the vine - the fruit of summer gardening

A terrible confession this, but I've always bought my guacamole, presuming that it was a messy old dish to prepare.  When one of our friends - a non-cook - served this up over the Summer at an impromptu garden party, I decided it must be a no-brainer. 

Not only does the home-made version taste ten times better than the store bought version, have you also seen how cheap avocados are at Reading Terminal Market right now..?

The recipe below was provided by Dana Hall, a friend who was a devout non-cook until recently, but is now a cookaholic! 

Says Dana: "When we have an unexpected visitor, need a little protein, or are moving slowly (and thus lose the ability to cook for four days), we prep delicious guac in less than five minutes.  Adding onions isn't to everyone's taste, but it does add crunchiness and makes the guac a more substantial meal."

Prep time is minimal, but the recommendation from the experts at the Food Network is to let the guac sit for about an hour to ensure that the flavors thoroughly infuse the dip.

We also spotted a relevant hot tip on Iovine Bros. Facebook page. 

Butch who is Iovine's front man - and fruit and veggie guru - regularly posts a tip of the day on Facebook and also on Iovine's YouTube channel. 

He recommends keeping avocados, tomatoes and mangoes out of the fridge.  According to Butch, not only do you slow down the ripening process, you actually destroy their flavor once you refrigerate these three staples. 

Dana goes one better - she picks her tomatoes straight off the vine: 

"We have avocados of all ripeness in the fruit bin all summer and typically have red onions and lemon in the fridge leftover from dinner and cocktails :)

"We walk out into the yard and pick our own home grown tomatoes!"

Ingredients:

One large or two small avocados - soft to touch

1/4 small red onion, chopped finely

1 small tomato diced

1/4 lemon, juiced

pepper

sea salt to taste

Mush the avocado with your fingers or a spatula, throw in finely chopped onion and tomato.  Squeeze on juice. heavily pepper and sea salt the mixture. Serve on olive oil ciabatta or with pita chips. 

Aside from guacamole, the other side dish which knocks spots off the store bought version is a good salsa.  The thing we like best about salsa is that aside from the citrus or vinegar or other acid ingredient, the onion and cilantro, you can pretty much mix and match any other ingredients in your salsa - depending on what's in season, or more to the point, what you have hanging around in your fridge. 

It's a grab and go side that transforms a slab of grilled meat or a chop!

A Philly girlfriend swears by this recipe from http://www.foodrenegade.com/, which combines the sweetness of mango with sweet seasonal cherry tomatoes. Food Renegade is a great blog featuring healthy recipe ideas and devotes some space to the politics and philosophy behind Real Food, it's worth checking out.

In previous posts, we have featured other salsa recipes.  One of our absolute faves is....

Jack McDavid's Strawberry Habanero Salsa - he recommends serving this lovely concoction on a meaty white grilled fish, such as a halibut steak.